Chapter 177

• Vanessa's POV
• I leaned back against the velvet of the booth, crossing one leg over the other as I watched the bottle service girls pass by, glittering under the dim club lights. “Do they really think they can bury us? Claire doesn’t even have the guts to come outside anymore. I bet she’s curled up in that little rented apartment of hers watching everything crash down around her.”
• A few of the girls in our circle laughed, tossing their hair, clinking glasses, whispering sweet and poisonous things into each other’s ears. The kind of night that feeds on petty victories and rising smoke from fallen empires.